I noticed Filmaka’s Jason Haikara’s Facebook Posting announcing Shoot Magazine’s “New Director’s Showcase”. Filmaka member, Jonathan Newman had been selected to be showcased last year and good things came to him from this honor, so I paid attention to Jason’s posting. I submitted two of my projects “Race to the Sky” and “What Kind Of Planet Are We On?” just making SHOOTS’s deadline by the skin of my teeth.

Two weeks later, when checking my e-mail, I discovered a note from Roberta Griefer, publisher of SHOOT Magazine. When I read it, I actually gasped. Roberta was congratulating me on being selected for SHOOT’s New Director’s 8th Annual Showcase. Wow! “SHOOT” is a highly respected advertising/commercial production industry magazine and since I very much want to make commercials, I found this honor especially exciting!

I flew to New York for this event and was accompanied by LiveTribe Productions Executive Producer Karen Lavender and Producer Jamie Bullock both of whom play key roles in many of my projects including “What Kind Of Planet Are We On?” which was screened as part of this event. Kate Salvino representing Current Content Creation (whom I’ve recently signed with) also flew in from L.A.. Between the three of them, I was surrounded by smart & beautiful company.

Cannes 2010 marks a historic achievement for Filmaka as our first film SWINGING WITH THE FINKELS will be screened twice for potential distributors. FINKELS, based on a short film submitted to our FX Comedy Competition, is written and directed by award-winning (Ford Mustang Stories) Filmaka member Jonathan Newman and produced by Filmaka co-founder Deepak Nayar (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM). The romantic comedy stars Martin Freeman (UK’s THE OFFICE), Mandy Moore, Jonathan Silverman, Melissa George and comedy legend Jerry Stiller.

Immediately after FINKELS, Jonathan and Deepak reteemed on the just-wrapped feature FOSTER, also based on one of Jonathan’s short films (pre-Filmaka). FOSTER has an amazing cast: Emmy-award winner Toni Collette (THE UNITED STATES OF TARA), Ioan Grufudd (AMAZING GRACE, FANTASTIC FOUR), Richard E. Grant (GOSFORD PARK) and Oscar-winner Hayley Mills.

Both FINKELS and FOSTERS are repped by Simon Crowe and SC Films International. For Simon’s contact info and everything you need to know about FINKELS, check out SwingingWithTheFinkels.com

Filmaka founders and independent film producers Deepak Nayar and Thomas Augsberger will be busy on the Riviera the next two weeks. Deepak will be generating interest for his latest movies, Filmaka’s SWINGING WITH THE FINKELS and FOSTER, both directed by Filmaka member Jonathan Newman while Thomas will be working on distribution deals for one of his clients, Munich based Tele Muenchen Group, which is owned by Filmaka jury member Dr. Herbert Kloiber.

Also heading to Cannes are Filmaka award winners Brett Wagner, Rudolf Buitendach, Luca Immesi and Giulia Brazzale. We’ll have more details about their trip in the coming days as well as Cannes-related announcements about some of our other members.

If you are attending Cannes or have films screening or in competition, shoot us an e-mail at info@filmaka.com – We’d like to share your news with the Filmaka community.

This week, the ReelHeART International Film Festival, Toronto, awarded the Best Film Award in the ReelTube category to Pat Kelman’s Filmaka shorts FRANCIS, THE LETTER GAME and ELEPHANT BOY. Reel Tube is a new category added to this year’s lineup, to honor films specifically made for the internet. Pat is a Festival favorite, having won Best Feature Film Award in 2005 for ENCOUNTERS. Congratulations on your continued success, Pat!

The talented Calderons, three brothers who live in or near Tijuana, Mexico, drove to Los Angeles this past weekend to help their sister move and to have lunch with Filmaka’s Jason and Carolyn. Roy is a director, a 2008/09 Filmaka Feature Film Competition finalist. Ramses is a producer and actor who has appeared in many of Roy’s films, including a new one entered in our “Smoke and Mirrors” competition. Jonathan is a musician. Lunch was at Grub, a restaurant just blocks away from Paramount Studios. The guys were excited to see Yeardley Smith, who plays Lisa on The Simpsons. It was great meeting you guys and we look forward to seeing more of your creativity.

We always knew that Noah Harald was a star behind the camera – a Filmaka 2008 Feature Film Finalist, he created the web series Starlet and was a winner of our Lincoln Grammys (R) Music Video competition. Well, Noah now can be seen in front of the camera, starring in Nikon’s new, information-filled, podcast. The podcast features footage from his Lincoln music video as well as the great work he has done for the Outfit Media Group.

This just in from Filmaka 08/09 Feature Film Competition Finalist Pat Kelman:

“Hi gang. Just to let you know of some continued success of my Filmaka films. The 5th ReelHeART International Film Festival (RHIFF), Toronto will launch on Monday June 22nd with a programme of films that includes three shorts by Pat Kelman created for Filmaka. The programme includes FRANCIS (Truth or Dare Special Jury Prize winner), THE LETTER GAME (Truth or Dare Entry Level Winner) and ELEPHANT BOY (On the Road Entry Level Winner). Being selected for RHIFF is like a homecoming for the film maker, as his first feature, ENCOUNTERS, won the Best Feature Film prize in the Festival’s inagural year and has been shown twice since under the Festival’s banner. FRANCIS and THE LETTER GAME are included in the Festival’s new “ReelTube” category, intended for films specifically created for the internet. ELEPHANT BOY has the honour of being selected for the Festival’s Short Film Competition. Kind regards, Pat”

We are having some technical issues with our blog which is why our postings have not included photos and videos in a couple weeks. We are working hard to fix that problem.

Johathan Newman

The biggest news at Filmaka this week is that SHOOT named JONATHAN NEWMAN to its New Director’s Showcase. Jonathan, as you may recall, was the winner of Filmaka’s FORD MUSTANG STORIES competition and SHOOT selected him because of his Mustang film “Father’s Day.” Jonathan is flying from London to New York to attend the reception at the DGA. We’ll be posting updates from Jonathan’s trip. Congrats, Jonathan!

The Filmaka staff – and many of you! – have been busy getting ready for the DIRECTV Film Challenge. Pitches are due this Monday 5/25 so, if you have any free time over Memorial Day weekend, this could be worth your while. Twenty semi-finalists will be awarded $5,000 each to turn their pitch into a film. After a month of production, ten winners will be awarded $50K, with the top winner receiving $15K. Check out http://www.filmaka.com/directv

Our Webby Award winners from Mexico City, Luis, Rodrigo, and Arturo are hard at work publicizing their success in Mexico – several articles and a radio interview so far. In a couple weeks, they’ll head to New York with Filmaka’s Jana Augsberger and Allison Polly to accept their Webby Award for Best Drama Series (THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF LA VIDA LOCA).

Filmaka had a meeting with a potential new client – always looking for opportunities for our members – and we’re working on some exciting changes to our website.

Finally, we have also been working on an experimental project. We’ll fill you in as soon as we can.

Welcome to Filmaka!

Filmaka, the vision of independent film producer Deepak Nayar (Bend It Like Beckham, Buena Vista Social Club)and Thomas Augsberger (Mr. Brooks, Waiting) is a global creative community and video entertainment studio. The community is powered by a series of competitions which reward filmmakers with production budgets, cash prizes, diverse employment opportunities and potential management and talent agency representation. Stay updated by subscribing to the RSS feed.